Who invented first motherboard?
IBM, in 1981.
There was no specific invention or inventor of a first
motherboard. The concept of a motherboard evolved over a number of
years responding to the reduction in electronic component size. One
of the original concepts in computer construction was the
backplane. The backplane allowed for circuit card to be plugged in
on one side. Its back had rows of pins corresponding to the socket
connections. The pin connections defined how the attached circuit
cards functioned and pins were connected to other pins with wires
wrapped around them.
As technology matured, electronic parts were combined into
Integrated circuit (IC) chips which were mounted on the backplane
itself and the pins and wiring on the rear of the backplane were
replaced by printed circuits. This eventually became what we call a
motherboard, mainboard or some equivalent name.
Original microcomputers and personal computers had a central
processor (CPU), memory, and control circuitry on the motherboard.
That took up all the available space. Most other parts required
their own support circuitry that would not fit on the motherboard
so they were placed on individual circuit cards plugged into the
motherboard. This included additional memory, output display, hard
drives controllers, and even standard input/output ports such as
serial (RS232,) Printer(parallel), mouse and game ports. Most of
these eventually became compact enough to be integrated onto the
motherboard board we use today.